Tag Archives: Handmaid

In an unprecedented assault on women’s reproductive rights, the NH House passed SB66, a ‘fetal personhood’ bill. The fetal personhood measure recognizes a fetus as an independent victim of a crime for the first time under New Hampshire law.

Looking over the House floor was a group of “Handmaids” dressed in full red robes and wings, made popular by the breakout hit “A Handmaid’s Tale.” In the show, women have become subservient to men in every way. Handmaids, being the only women left who can possibly bear children, the Handmaids are given to high power families and forced into conceiving a child for their captors. If they do conceive a child with their “Commanders”, the high powered man of their house, the child becomes his and the handmaid is relegated to the position of wet nurse and nanny.

The handmaids have no rights to their own bodies which makes them the perfect symbol for the assault on women’s reproductive rights currently being pushed through our state legislature.

The proponents of the bill say the legislation will create stiffer penalties to those who attack a pregnant woman, causing harm to the fetus. However, this legislation creates many problems. SB 66, as amended by the majority of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, is inconsistent with existing New Hampshire law and risks serious unintended consequences. The bill, which also includes a definition of a fetus, has no medical or legal grounding.

“By recognizing a fetus as an independent victim of a crime for the first time under New Hampshire law, SB 66 threatens to pit the rights of a fetus against the rights of a pregnant woman,” said Devon Chaffee, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Hampshire.

As the NH ACLU explained: “Existing New Hampshire law currently provides for severe enhanced penalties for violent crimes that result in the loss of pregnancy, without putting women’s rights at risk. Under existing New Hampshire law, a person may be prosecuted for First Degree Assault if that person purposely or knowingly causes injury to another resulting in miscarriage or stillbirth—a class A Felony carrying a sentence of up to 15 years.”

This is a heavy-handed attempt to eventually make abortion a crime. “In states that have adopted fetal personhood measures like SB 66 as amended by the Committee, women have been targeted with arrest, prosecution and other deprivations of their liberty for their behavior during pregnancy,” added the NH ACLU.

Governor Sununu told the Union Leader of his intention to sign the bill.

“The fetal homicide bill is about justice for women,” Sununu stated. He went on to say, that SB 66 “Has nothing to do with being pro-choice or pro-life,” despite actions by Republicans in the House who tried to repeal the 20 week provision in the law to say that “life begins at conception.”

Provisions like SB 66 add to a growing nationwide effort intended to create tension in the law between fetal rights and women’s rights. While SB 66 includes an exemption for abortion, opponents of abortion rights support such provisions as a legal foundation for overturning Roe v. Wade and its critical protections.

Action Together New Hampshire who organized the Handmaids for the session releases the following:

Action Together New Hampshire is disappointed but not surprised by the outcome of the House of Representatives votes on SB 3 and SB 66. We were surprised by several members of the House of Representatives and their behavior towards members exercising their right to protest peacefully. Voters in New Hampshire deserve leaders, not adults who behave like high school bullies.

If women are no longer able to control their own reproductive rights, what will the Republicans do next? Will they say that women cannot own property or control their own money or force them into slavery based “religious teachings” and scripture as the do in “The Handmaid’s Tale”?

This bill is a step in the wrong direction taking us one step closer to making a “Handmaid’s Tale” reality.

Rep. Debra Altschiller, members of UltraViolet, Action Together New Hampshire, and Granite State Progress take on rape promoter with joint rally and press conference

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE — Prior to the committee voting to take “no action” on Rep Robert Fisher, members of UltraViolet, a national women’s advocacy organization, joined Action Together New Hampshire, Granite State Progress, and Rep. Debra Altschiller for a small rally, where participants appeared in costumes from the popular book and TV show A Handmaid’s Tale to address Rep. Robert Fisher’s online comments promoting rape. The group also held a press conference urging a New Hampshire State legislature committee to make an official recommendation that would expel Rep. Fisher from office. The full State House of Representatives will then vote on Fisher’s potential expulsion from the legislative body on June 1st.

The move to expel state representative Robert Fisher from the New Hampshire legislature came after a report last month from The Daily Beast, discovered that the two-term Republican was the creator of an online community dedicated to promoting violence against women. Fisher’s actions on the online forum included comments deriding women’s intelligence, and recommending ways for men to dodge rape accusations, as well as statements arguing that rape had specific benefits – especially for the rapist. Since the comments were discovered, Fisher has doubled down and publicly defended the idea that most women lie about rape and that men should put cameras in their bedrooms to protect themselves.

More than 42,000 members of UltraViolet have signed onto the petition calling on the New Hampshire State Legislature to discipline Fisher and expel him from office. State lawmakers and New Hampshire’s Governor have also called for Fisher to resign.

“Robert Fisher is a rape promoter who has no place serving in government,” explained Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet.“Comments like Fisher’s contribute directly to America’s rape epidemic by normalizing and excusing violence against women. Fisher’s promotion of this repulsive ideology puts women’s lives at risk and undermines trust in the New Hampshire state legislature to protect all citizens. We urge the Legislative Administration Committee to recommend that the House expel Fisher from their ranks – and demonstrate to all New Hampshire residents that misogyny will not be tolerated.”

“Trivializing this horrific crime or minimizing it through pseudo intellectual arguments does not deserve respect or celebration,” said Rep. Debra Altschiller. “Representative Fisher’s actions deserve condemnation, and we should not try to make them go away by patting ourselves on the back for having a hearing. We need to take clear and concise action that speaks to our state and to the nation whose eyes are upon us because of the shameful behavior of Representative Fisher.”

Zandra Rice-Hawkins, Executive Director of Granite State Progress said, “The actions of Rep. Fisher rise to an unprecedented situation in the House. There should be no statute of limitations in considering how his rape culture comments and the misogynistic forum he created are detrimental to women. There should be no looking the other way when a politician promotes the false narrative that rape victims are liars. And we know from new information that Rep. Fisher has not reformed, and that he has continued to participate in the Red Pill despite his claims otherwise.

Emily Morgan, Action Together New Hampshire said, “The women of New Hampshire are not safe with men like Representative Fisher making laws and it’s a disservice to all of New Hampshire that the leaders of his party are going out of their way to protect him”

After the press conference, the Legislation Administration Committee led by Republican Dick Hinch argued over whether or not any action should be taken against Rep Fisher. Rep Hinch recommended “no action” and straight down party lines, in a vote of 8-6, the committee agreed that the committee would take no action against Rep Fisher.

After the vote, female members of the audience began to shout “shame” to those members who voted to condone Rep Fisher’s actions.